How do I fix this AppScript Array Value Comparison error with values of different lengths

I have a google sheet appscript macro that is comparing weekly scores across a set of teams in a league. It's checking which team would have beat each other each week by comparing scores across a set of categories. There is some logic to set whether some categories score for being higher or lower. The macro is correctly comparing scores in nearly all cases, but I eventually found a bug that I can't sort out.

  // Get all relevant data from the stat sheet in one go
  const statsRange = statSheet.getRange('C8:C234').offset(0, weeks);
  const statsData = statsRange.getValues();

  // Iterate through teams (assuming 12 teams)
  for (let i = 0; i <= 11; i++) {
    for (let j = 0; j <= 11; j++) {
      if (i===11&&j===11) {break}
      if (j===i) {j=j+1;}
      let score = 0;

      // Iterate through stats for each team pair, comparing and calculating score. 
     Scores are across 19 rows per team in the data set. There are 15 relevant rows. 

      for (let k = 0; k <= 15; k++) { 
        var homeStat = statsData[(19 * i) + k]; 
        var awayStat = statsData[(19 * j) + k];

        // Skip some stats and handle some differently
        if (k === 0 || k === 1 || k === 3 || k === 4) {continue}
        else if (k === 13||k === 14) {
          score += (homeStat < awayStat) ? 1 : (homeStat > awayStat) ? -1 : 0;
        } else {
          score += (homeStat > awayStat) ? 1 : (homeStat < awayStat) ? -1 : 0;
        }
        console.log(i, j, k, homeStat, awayStat, score)
      }

An example input data set

Cell	Value
C198	180
C199	409
C200	0.44
C201	114
C202	148
C203	0.77
C204	68
C205	542
C206	43
C207	174
C208	107
C209	28
C210	14
C211	55
C212	0
C213	0
C214	7
C215
C216
C217	130
C218	273
C219	0.476
C220	65
C221	82
C222	0.793
C223	35
C224	360
C225	42
C226	142
C227	87
C228	31
C229	25
C230	52
C231	0
C232	1
C233	7

For some reason, if HomeStat and AwayState of different orders of magnitude this comparison produces inverse results. An example log/output: i and j are teams in the sheet. k is the stat category. Home and away stats are the inputs from each team for the category. The score should increment up or down based on the logic. k = 10 is the error. It increments up when home score is less than away score.

|time|log|i|j|k|home stat|away stat|score|
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 2 [ 0.476 ] [ 0.44 ] 1
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 5 [ 0.793 ] [ 0.77 ] 2
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 6 [ 35 ] [ 68 ] 1
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 7 [ 360 ] [ 542 ] 0
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 8 [ 42 ] [ 43 ] -1
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 9 [ 142 ] [ 174 ] -2
6:59:04 PM  Info    **11 10 10 [ 87 ] [ 107 ] -1**
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 11 [ 31 ] [ 28 ] 0
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 12 [ 25 ] [ 14 ] 1
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 13 [ 52 ] [ 55 ] 2
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 14 [ 0 ] [ 0 ] 2
6:59:04 PM  Info    11 10 15 [ 1 ] [ 0 ] 3

The logic always applies +1 to the score that's a shorter length (2 vs. 3 numbers), regardless if it's home or away. If both scores are 2 or 3 numbers long it scores correctly.

Solution

The logic always applies +1 to the score that's a shorter length (2 vs. 3 numbers), regardless if it's home or away.

Chances are that those values aren't numbers but text strings that just look like numbers. Text strings compare lexicographically so "10" < "2".

To make it work, format the column as Format > Number > Automatic instead of Format > Number > Plain text, or use Number(), like this:

      for (let k = 0; k <= 15; k++) { 
        const homeStat = Number(statsData[(19 * i) + k]); 
        const awayStat = Number(statsData[(19 * j) + k]);

See Number().